Recent years, many medical images showing the interiors of living bodies have been used in medical diagnoses, and, in order to acquire such medical images, various technologies and apparatuses (modalities) such as X-ray imaging apparatus, X-ray CT (computed tomography) apparatus, ultrasonic (US) diagnostic apparatus, MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) apparatus, and PET (positron emission tomography) apparatus are widely used. Many of the apparatuses are digitalized, and diagnostic information processing systems within hospitals and so on are being constructed. Further, among the imaging technologies, CT and MRI have achieved significant results in detection and evaluation of lesion parts in living bodies because they can acquire and display axial images of a living body at relatively short intervals. Here, an axial image refers to a tomographic image that shows a surface perpendicular or substantially perpendicular to the body axis of an object to be inspected (so-called cross sectional surface). Hereinafter, the axial image is also simply referred to as “slice image”.
At tomographic imaging for CT inspection or the like, not only one part (e.g., only the chest or abdomen) is necessarily imaged, but imaging is often sequentially performed over plural parts (e.g., from chest to abdomen, head to chest, or the like) in one inspection. Accordingly, usually, one series of slice images showing plural parts are segmented with respect to each part after imaging, and thereby, plural series are newly generated. Usually, a doctor (image interpretation doctor) acquires a series showing a part in charge and makes image interpretation.
As a related technology, DeJarnette Research Systems, Inc., “CT Workflow in a PACS Environment” (Internet <URL: http://www.dejarnette.com/Library/Article%20PDFs/CT%20Workflow%20in%20a%20PACS%20Environment.pdf>, searched on May 26, 2006) discloses an apparatus (Automatic Study Breakup Device) for receiving a worklist from a PACS (Picture Archiving and Communication System) or RIS (Radiology Information System), recognizing a set of processing to be integrated as one combined processing, sending it to a CT scanner to allow the scanner to perform a series of inspections, and breaking up thereby obtained images in association with individual processing and storing them in a PACS (pages 13-14).
However, series segmentation of segmenting one series of images of plural parts into plural series is not necessarily performed appropriately. For instance, when parts are erroneously recognized for the respective slice images, the images are segmented at incorrect slice positions. Further, when plural parts are shown in one slice image (e.g., a chest and an abdomen), if the slice image is included in one series (e.g., an abdomen series), in the other series (e.g., a chest series), a part is partially missed (e.g., the lower half of a lung field is not included in the chest series).
Even when the doctor during image interpretation notices the failure in series segmentation and the missing of parts, it is extremely difficult and takes a lot of efforts to search for associated series among an enormous amount of images to display the continuation of the series being interpreted. As a result, the image interpretation doctor becomes impossible to smoothly carry on the image interpretation.